Ruth Rendell Mysteries (TV Series) A Sleeping Life: Part One (1989) User Reviews

If the clothes fit.

[xmasdaybaby1966 · 7/10 · 28 February 2021]

I watched this as an omnibus so it is difficult to know where each instalment started. A quality cast and a good story but it does seem to be dragged out somewhat but worth sticking with. The subject matter might have been shocking at the time so the writers give Wexford a day trip to France to give him a clue as to what has happened so as to make people believe it isn't a regular occurrence here. Reg is back in the office he had in the previous series and there is no mention of Burden's family life which took up most of the previous storyline. 2 hours 25 seems rather long these days for a story and would be easily done in a 90 minute film today. Worth sticking with.

An excellent adaptation

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 8 August 2015]

I enjoyed all the Wexford novels and adaptations, A Sleeping Life stands out as being particularly clever and imaginative. It boasts a particularly explosive and loud opening, the scene where Roda is stabbed is certainly enough to grab the viewers attention. Sylvia Sims adds plenty of humour, Lillian Crown is more then a match for Wexford.

A complex plot unravels, a question of gender identity is asked, and answered. It compares very well to the novelisation, it's a very faithful work. Slow paced in parts some would argue, I find it an excellent drama, Baker's French scenes are particularly enjoyable.

A young Imelda Staunton plays Polly Flinders, it's easy to see how she is manipulated by the beautiful Malina Patel, again exactly as in the novel. I hope I don't offend anyone when I say I'd love to see the Wexford serials remade, they could do so much with them by bringing them up to date. I would dearly love to see the full set released commercially.

So relevant still today. 9/10

Good story, acting, locations

[lucy-19 · 10 March 2006]

The Wexford series (on TV and in book form) captures the atmosphere of ordinary English people leading ordinary lives in ordinary flats, houses, pubs, offices - lives that sometimes become less ordinary, or as in this tale, turn out to have been pretty extraordinary all along. I loved the stifling flat shared by Miss Flinders and the predatory and controlling Miss Patel. This episode scoops up several top notch actors to set alongside the dependable George Baker, Christopher Ravenscroft and Louie Ramsay. Imelda Staunton, Sylvia Sims, and isn't that Lesley Joseph? Niall Buggy does an excellent turn as a camp pub landlord (where is he now? Gone back to Ireland?). The self-contained plot is only marred by the format's need to add soapy details of the series characters' private life. We get way way too much of Wexford's daughter, who's quit her husband thanks to some ill-digested feminism. This is lifted from the book, where it also seems shoehorned in, perhaps in response to an editor's demand for moving with the times. Wexford and his wife Dora are appealing characters, but for me you could cut all the stuff about France, and oysters, and chablis. What's that all about? Eighties middle-class aspirational lifestyle?

well woven fabric

[bengleson · 24 May 2002]

I'm not a Ruth Rendell reader particularly but I have been taken by George Baker's cinematic gruff Inspector Reg Wexford. This tasty little morsel is all the more enhanced by a brief journey to France and an introduction to Oyster's on the half shell, washed down by brisk white wine and a brief introduction to the French laissez-faire attitude to less common sexual orientations. On the other hand, the repressed British stereotype never fails to provide a sad poignancy.An added treat is an altogether too brief appearance by Sylvia Syms.